Portable and removable storage devices (collectively referred to herein as “computer storage devices”), such as internal hard drives, external hard drives, flash drives, USB (universal serial bus) drives, portable disk drives, memory cards, optical media, tape devices and RDX or removable data cartridges are commonly used to provide storage and access to data, applications, etc. stored on the computer storage device via a computing system to which the user may operably connect the computer storage device. Some computer storage devices include security measures and require user authentication prior to access to the data, applications, etc., which are stored on the computer storage device.
The security measures provided on such devices include single factor authentication, as traditionally based on a password or other similar knowledge known to the user. This is often referred to as “something you know” authentication. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, such traditional systems 100 for authentication of computer storage devices 104 require that some authenticating information, such as a password 102, be provided in order to access the computer storage device 104 via a computing system 106.
Accordingly, such traditional systems and methods for authentication of the user for access to the data, applications, etc. stored on a computer storage device require the user to enter, for example, a password each and every time the user wants to access the data or at least each and every time the storage device is coupled to a host computing system. For typical users, this may impose extra steps to access the data, particularly if access is desired several times in a relatively short period of time. In addition, this requires the user to remember the password or authentication information, which can be burdensome.
Often, users want secure and immediate access without extra effort. Thus, there exists a need in the art for systems and methods for user authentication for a computer storage device, which overcome the above disadvantages.